Tuesday, August 10, 2010

From my email archives, this is from Jim Meisenheimer from last summer:

Personal BrandingHow To Do It In 5 Easy Steps

Personal branding for professional salespeople should be a high priority - unfortunately it isn't.

Your personal branding can provide you with an unique competitive advantage if you take the time to develop it.

Here are five easy steps you can use to launch your personal brand.

1. What makes you different - I mean really, what makes you different from other salespeople? If you don't give this any thought, don't think you're memorable from your customer's perspective.

I often ask the question, "what makes you different from your competition" during my corporate sales training programs. I always get the same responses: honesty, reliable, experienced, problem solver, product knowledge, follow up, trustworthy etc.

While these qualities are admirable they won't differentiate you from your competition because everybody believes they possess these qualities.

Just remember this - if you want to be remembered you have to be memorable!

2. What are you known for? Do you have specialized training? Do you have an advanced degree? Do you have 23 years of experience within a market subsegment?

For example, I have met salespeople with doctorate degrees who keep this a secret from their sales prospects and customers. Why in the world would you do this, when you could differentiate you from your competition?

Are you unflappable? Do you possess an extraordinary sense of humor? Do you possess any unique skills - like you're scratch golfer or maybe a college football referee? Are you a gourmet cook? Do you breed dogs in your spare time?

What makes you different, makes you memorable.

3. Let people know what makes you different. You can communicate your uniqueness in ways you have never imagined before. I'll give you 2 specific ways you can do this.

Prepare a special report on a topic that you have some experience and expertise in. Google makes doing research a snap. You create a title page, an about you page, the actual content pages, and you could end your special report with a short list of resources your sales prospects and customers would benefit from.

You could also write a book. If you happen to be a timid soul you could team up with two or three other salespeople. Imagine how your sales prospects and customers would react when you give them a book you've written. It automatically establishes you as an expert. It automatically sets you apart from your competition.

And here's some very good news for you - you don't even have to write the book yourself. You can visitwww.elance.com and post a job describing the project and how much you're willing to spend. You can probably get a special report, on any subject, for less than $125. You can probably get a book written for less than $400.

Think about this for a minute. How many salespeople do you know, who are working in your industry, are giving their sales prospects and customers special reports and books they have written? Probably not too many.

You see, personal branding is not about blending in, it's about standing out. Doing things that no one else is doing creates a strong personal brand for you.

Your personality, unfortunately, isn't enough to differentiate you from all the salespeople calling on your sales prospects and customers.

4. Most professional speakers have signature stories they tell. These stories are unique to the speaker. It's their signature. As an entrepreneur or a professional sales person you can create a signature for yourself. For example, my e-mail signature includes this: 21 years . . . 522 corporate clients . . . 72.7% repeat business.

These 47 characters help create my personal brand - you can easily do the same thing.

What color did Johnny Cash favor? He was the man in black, wasn't he? What color shirt does Tiger Woods always wear on Sundays? It's always red isn't it?

You don't have to be famous to consider doing this. In fact doing this may help you to become better known in your industry.

You could always wear blue ties. You could always use a fountain pen to take notes during sales calls and to write short personal notes. Not too many salespeople are doing these things.

Another good example of a great signature is Thomas Jefferson's signature - it really does stand out, doesn't it?

5. Do something that says you're different. Do something on the blank side of your business card. Think about what you can leave behind at the end of the sales call. In preparing for this article I did a Google search for the phrase, pencils personalized.

You can order these pencils in a variety of designs and colors for as low as 7 cents each. You can also imprint up to four lines of text on each pencil. The pencil becomes your business card.

Imagine including a sharpened pencil with your sales proposals with a short note saying, "We already sharpened our pencil for you."

Finally, don't assume you're automatically different because of your DNA. You have to work at cultivating your uniqueness within your industry. Doing these five things will enable you to become the "Go to person" within your industry.